Blog 3

Dear all

I have been unable to e mail you as we are all simply exhausted due to work load and a humid ,wet environment .

We have all had a very challenging few days .We have divided into 3 teams .Team 1 are concentrating on the new home. Mr Johnson a Chemistry teacher at Moniques school is leading this team They have made good process preparing the walls for plastering they have however had some difficulties with the builders who are not keen on having the children working in the home .The dead line on Tues the 29th July as the moving in day still looks possible.

Team 2 have been in to old Goa to spend time with the some of the street children the Serva Trust have rented an old school hall. This is to provide a day care facility where where70 children can have English lessons ,play and have fun .Mrs Johnson a special needs teacher at Moniques school is leading this team.

Team 3 is my team we are working in the old orphanage have been busy providing medical checks and have so far. examined 30 children ranging from a 3 week old baby to a teenage girl of 14In the main they are reasonably well baring in mind the conditions they are living in .Majority of them had head lice and scabies and have now all been treated there was no water as the supply had been cut off so we had to bath them with rain water in water butts.

Many of the children have leg and feet ulcers caused by infected bites so much of my time between de licing has been spent dressing these(Monique is my assistant ) we have created medical files for all and we are half way through writing the care plans .I have seen For the first time 2 cases of rickets !All have put all children on a months course of multi vits .

The biggest challenge was changing all the bed linen as there were so few sheets and we had to beat all of the mattresses as they were full of lice this was simply horrible.

Many of the little girls have ear piercings however they have no earings instead they have pieces of wood ! So these have been removed their ears cleaned and ear studs inserted the look of delight on their faces when they saw their ears with earings in was humbling to say the least .

Hope you are all well

Michelle and Monique